Happy Trick or Treat Day!

For those of you who celebrate Halloween, I'd like to share with you a house which I like to call, Home Sweet Frightening Home! To make this haunted house, I used my template "House of Cards."  I added some hand-cut bats flying over the chimney (on coated wire); a black tree made with Martha Stewart's Branch punch attached to a hand-cut tree trunk; and some stamped windows and pumpkin faces. Halloween is not my favorite holiday to celebrate, but it's always fun to see what creatures show up at our doorstep every year. Sometimes we take our kids to the Fall Festival instead of going door-to-door -- no scary costumes, just lots of fun rides and food for the family.

If you'd like to see a collection of Halloween cards and projects, head on over to Caardvarks, where today we have a fabulous collection of photos to inspire you and get you in the mood. Have a safe and creative day!

Susanna's Surprise Birthday Bash (and PRIZES, too!)

Paper Craft Planet is throwing a SURPRISE Birthday Bash for our beautiful, intelligent and very talented founder, Susanna Boyd, and we are celebrating in a BIG way!

I had the pleasure of meeting Susanna earlier this year at the Winter CHA in California. She is as sweet and beautiful as can be! I just adore her and I know that the rest of the Super Novas on her team love her just as much.  So, in honor of her birthday, we are having a great big CELEBRATION and GIVEAWAY!

We are so grateful to our sponsors for donating these fabulous prizes for this party:

7 Kids College Fund - High Hopes stamp "Greetings from the Gang" and a Memory Box 8 pack of notecards and envelopes
Hope Stamps Eternal - Basic Grey June Bug products
Gina K Designs - "Sweetest Blessings" stamp set
Clear & Simple Stamps - $25 gift certificate
i{heart}papers - 3 "Chicken Girl Design" stamp sets
Kitchen Sink Stamps - to be determined

What do you have to do to enter?
Make a **NEW** birthday card and upload your photo to PCP using the tag SB2009 (using this tag will put your photo in the Birthday Album and will qualify you for the chance to win these prizes.) Upload your photo by 11:59 pm on Sunday, October 25th.  All the details can be found HERE.

So, hop on over to PCP, wish Susanna a happy birthday and view the Birthday Album, which will also have the cards made by her design team.

For Susanna's card, I wanted to personalize it, so I added the PCP logo. After printing out the logo, I fit it behind a 1" clear button. I initially wanted to use her photo, but the two button holes kept getting in the way! It made her look like she had some weird glasses on! Anyway, I hope she likes this and I hope that she'll love her surprise party at PCP.

Supplies for my card:
Paper: Kraft, Old Olive, Melissa Frances DP, My Mind's Eye DP
Ink: Really Rust (SU!)
Acc: Clear Button, Ribbon (SU), Sizzix Die: Big Daisies #2 and Alphabet (SU!), Trinket Pins (Maya Road), Lace (Joann), Prima Flower, Sponge, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots, Sticky Strips, Rectangle Handheld Punch

Gimme Some Cookies!

It's 3D Tuesday at Paper Craft Planet!  The holidays are coming and of course cookies are a must! My 3D Challenge for PCP this week:  Wrap those cookies up in such a fun and creative way that the recipient won't even want to ruin your yummy presentation!

I have included a FREE template and tutorial for this box, but you can use any bag or box design for the challenge. The tag is also part of the template. For the "ornament," all I did was punch out a 1-1/4" circle and added a top for the string.  I hope you can play along.  When adding your photo to the PCP gallery, please use the tag 3d34 to make sure it goes into the right album.

Stamp: SU!
Paper: Vanilla, Pink Pirouette, Candy Lane DP (SU!)
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Acc: Border Punch (Martha Stewart), Ribbon (SU!), Scallop Punch, 1/8" Circle Punch, Linen Thread, Button, Cellophane Bag (Wilton)

Caardvarks Tall Card Challenge!

Caardvarks is having another great challenge and you're going to love the prizes!  Our sponsor, Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker is a new manufacturing company dedicated to creating premium paper and embellishments. Look at these prizes...

Set of acrylic font stamps: 


Scalloped Chipboard Album:

8x8" Designer Paper Pad, "U R My Favorite": 


8X8" Designer Paper Pad, "North Pole Nights": 
       AND MORE! 

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO?
Create a *new* TALL card! Have your entry linked to the Caardvarks Blog via Mr. Linky by Midnight, October 30th, Pacific Time. Please link *directly* to your blog post, not your main blog address. 

This is the TALL card that I made for this challenge.  It's actually a Tri-Fold Card Envelope (like the one I made in my previous post) and is closed securely by a ribbon belly band.

Sentiment: Fall Time Hanna (Hanna Stamps)
Paper: Core-dinations, SU! Patterned Paper
Ink: Espresso (Adirondack)
Acc:  Cuttlebug Flourish Borders, Sizzix Die, Label Die (Spellbinders), 5/8" Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, Bling, Mini Glue Dots, Sandpaper

Tri-Fold Card Envelope

This "Tri-Fold Card Envelope" (not sure yet what to call it) fits inside a #6-3/4 business envelope.  It measures 3-1/4" x 6".  The reason I chose this measurement is that I'm almost certain that everyone has this size envelope in their homes. To help keep the flap closed and for decorative purposes, I made a belly band using a 12" long 1/4" ribbon. To make the flower sturdy, I cut two of them out from the flower die.  In the center of the flowers, I punched out two rectangular holes the same width and distance apart as the holes in the buckle hardware. I then wrapped the ribbon around the card, slipped each ends through the holes of the flower and hardware starting from the back and then tied the ends together.

I'm still tweaking the template for this "Tri-Fold Card Envelope," but as soon as I'm finished with it, I will share it with you.

Paper: Suede, Vanilla, Moss, Rose Red, Thoroghly Modern DSP (SU!)
Acc: Label Punch, 1/4" Olive Twill Ribbon, Little Leaves and Flower Burst Sizzix Die
Sentiment: Taylored Expressions

Give Thanks

With Thanksgiving almost here, I thought I'd share this card with you. This is actually the second card I made for the Caardvarks May Arts Ribbon challenge (Oct. 5th). It's 5" x 5" square and I used two ribbons, both from May Arts: a velvet rick-rack which I sewed all the way around and the crinkled off white organdy, which is one of my favorites. You really have to feel it to appreciate this light ribbon. It also ties beautifully!

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

Sentiment: Fall Hanna (Hanna Stamps)
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Really Rust, Vanilla (SU!), Foof-A-La Pattern Paper
Ink: Espresso (Adirondack), Riding Hood Red (SU!)
Acc: Ribbons (May Arts), Flowers (Prima), Button (SU!), Dew Drop (Robbin's Nest), Memory Thread (DMC), Sewing Machine and Tread, Glue Dots, Sponge

Template Winners....

Good Mmorning! Before I go to bed, I thought I'd better post the "2" winners.  So here they are... the two winners of my templates are:

* * * DRAGONLADY * * * and * * * LINDA * * *

Please email me with your email info along with your two choices of templates. For everyone else, I want to thank you for your lovely comments and I want you to know that I really appreciate hearing from ( you. For those of you who left a comment, thank you for making my day, I have a discount code for 20% off your total purchase. 

2nd Blogoversary Candy!!!

I just looked at my calender and realized that two days ago was my second Blogoversary! Time sure has flown by and I would have never guessed I'd still be right here, blogging away.

I have found a new passion... making templates (found HERE)! Last month, I thought I'd give making templates a try and I just fell in love with it!  Thanks to so many of you, it's given me a big boost in my confidence.

To celebrate this "2nd" event, 
I'd like to offer to "2" of my readers 
"2" templates of their choice!

All you have to do is leave a comment here by Tuesday, October 13 at midnight Pacific Time.  Come back here on the 14th to find out who my "2" winners are. I will make my announcement soon after midnight.

"Harvest Blessings" House of Cards

Because Fall is here, I wanted to make something that represents this season of giving thanks. Here is my latest template. It 's a house that can hold cards and envelopes, but you can make it just as a decoration for your home or office. You can even make several of these houses and create a Christmas village. My template includes the templates and instructions for making a basic house and it's up to you to decorate it any way you like!  I hope you enjoy this fun project!

House of Cards Template/Tutorial

Cost for Download: $5.00

"Take a Bow!" Caardvarks Challenge

I am in love with this Silky Crushed Ribbon from May Arts! It is so light and ties beautifully. You can win some fabulous ribbons from May Arts by playing along in our Caardvarks "Take a Bow" Challenge.

THE CHALLENGE

Create a **NEW** card using ribbon in a wonderful way.  Go to the Caardvarks Blog and link your creation via Mr. Linky by October 17th at midnight Pacific time.

THE PRIZE

A HUGE assortment and variety of May Arts ribbon spools!

My card for this challenge is a Christmas shaker card using a "cup" from SU! I filled the "cup" with beads from my stash and an image of a snowman.  I wasn't sure about getting an image small enough to fit just right, but thanks to digi stamps, I can make any size I need! Even the sentiment was easy to resize (after cutting it out of the main image). The cute snowman and fun snow globe are from DZ Doodles and I tell ya, I had a hard time deciding which images to use.  They have such cute stuff!

Stamp: Snowman Greetings, Snow Globe, (DZ Doodles)
Paper: White, Vellum, Baja Breeze, Christmas Cocoa DSP (SU!)
Ink: Copics
Acc: Ribbon (May Arts), Felt Flurries, Button, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, Treat Cup (SU!), Beads, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots, Embroidery Thread (DMC), Snowflake Folder (Cuttlebug)